Darkness King
Darkness King is an American professional wrestler currently working for ELITE/FHT and GCW (Global Championship Wrestling). Early life Andrew Killington (Darkness King), was born August 8, 1978 in Silverspring, Maryland. He is the son of John Killington, a former professional wrestler for the WWA. Killington was raised in Silverspring his entire life, where he spent most of his time watching the likes of Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Jake the Snake Roberts, and so on. Killington was a huge fan of wrestling since his childhood years, thanks in part to his father being an independent wrestler himself. Andrew's mother, Jackie hated the business, but was very supportive of both Andrew and his father. Early career WWA Darkness King began his wrestling career in the WWA. His debut match was against Chris Kerrigan, now a very close friend. King would go on to lose the match, but it solidified him as a force in WWA. The character, very similar to those such as The Undertaker, had a much different feel to it than most gothic type characters seen in the wrestling world today. His character quickly grew into one of WWA's top and most popular superstar. While the character was originally an experiment, it turned into a huge hit for WWA, as King as very well received by the WWA audience. On December 14, 2004, King faced Charlie Helms for the WWA championship. The match turned out to be one of the most memorable matches in WWA history, lasting 28 minutes. The match ended with King getting a clean pinfall over Helms to become the new WWA champion. The two men respectively shook hands after the match (a move that as quite out of character for King), which was well received by the audience. King would go on to reign as champion for six months, defeating the likes of Chris Kerrigan, Rodney Paine, and SoulPlaya. King would finally lose the WWA championship at WWA All or Nothing on July 1, 2005 to Titan. Shortly thereafter however, WWA closed down due to severe financial and creative problems, essentially putting King's huge push on hold. GCW After the closure of the WWA, King was a free agent in the wrestling world. Real life friend Chris Kerrigan had just recently opened up a new promotion called Global Championship Wrestling, based out of Albany, NY. King was one of the first to be drafted into the new promotion, and once again it would prove to be a very big success for both King and the company. When GCW's first show aired on July 24, 2005, King defeated SoulPlaya in a Steel Cage match to become the first GCW Universal Champion. King's reign was short however, as he lost the title just three weeks later at GCW Rebellion to SoulPlaya in a Hardcore in Hell match. SoulPlaya set King on fire and "burried" him alive. This was to play off an injury that King had suffered at a GCW house show in which King severely strained his quad. King would be off GCW television for almost a month while he tended to his injury. Darkness King made his return on September 26, 2005 at GCW Obsession to face SoulPlaya once again for the GCW Universal Championship. The match ended in controversy when SoulPlaya claimed that King tapped out to a near naked choke, and the referee called for the bell. King claimed however that he was merely slamming his fists off the mat in an attempt to reverse the hold. The following night on GCW Monday Night Hellzone, owner Chris Kerrigan declared that there would be a rematch for the Universal Championship. This time around, King was able to overcome SoulPlaya and become the new Universal Champion, and his second reign. King would go on a vicious winning streak, winning 24 matches in a row before finally dropping the Universal Championship to Lbm in a Ladder Match. The match, which lasted 21 minutes long, was awarded the GCW Match of the Year title in December 2005. King would go on to win the International title three times, and reign as Tag Team Champion twice. King is still currently working for GCW, where he is feuding with Apoc over the Triple Crown Championship. King vs. SoulPlaya Initially planned to be a short feud, this turned out to be King's longest feud of his career, and arguably his most brutal and personal. On the August 1st edition of Monday Night Hellzone, Darkness King declared that there was no one in GCW that could match his power or his strength. King also declared that if there was anyone who dared to challenge that theory, that he would single handedly "tear them limb from limb". During this segment, the lights in the arena went pitch black, and a video promo began playing. The mystery person in the video claimed that they knew secrets about King's past that he didn't want to be revealed. The following week on Hellzone, King returned to the ring and demanded that the mystery person reveal themselves. Once again the video played, and for several weeks thereafter, they would continue to follow King, distracting him in matches and backstage. Finally, after weeks of torment, during a match between King and Rodney Paine, the lights went black once again. When they returned, SoulPlaya was standing behind King and proceeded to beat down King. At GCW Retribution, King faced SoulPlaya in a Hardcore in Hell match. The match which lasted over 20 minutes, finally saw an end when SoulPlaya set King's face (mask in particular) on fire, as King immediately ran backstage. The following night, SoulPlaya came down to the ring with a burnt Darkness King mask, and declared that he had "silenced the King of Darkness once and for all". Immediately after, lightning struck the ringpost, and King rose from the center of the ring. King proceeded to beat down SoulPlaya and chokeslam him through the announcers table. Over the course of the next several weeks, King and SoulPlaya would take shots at each other back and fourth. At one point, King even crucified SoulPlaya, and left him in the middle of the ring at the conclusion of Hellzone. The feud would continue for two more months. Finally at GCW Global Showdown II, King and SoulPlaya faced off in the first ever "Hells Garden" match, which was similar to a Hell in a Cell match, except the ropes were barbed wire, along with the inside of the cell being wrapped in barbed wire. A very bloody King finally defeated King after tombstoning him through the center of the cell. Controversy FCW On October 12, 2005, King made his debut in FCW. This would mark the first time in his career that King was working for two promotions at the same time. Originally, it was scripted for King to make his debut against Bulk Logan, and eventually become number one contender for the FCW World Heavyweight Championship. Just three weeks into his arrival however, the FCW creative team made a very controversial decision to end King's push, citing creative differences within management. Initially, King was not terribly upset by this, and he still intended to stay with the company. FCW began mis-using the character however, putting him in matches with women and labeling King as the "woman killer". King cited his disapproval with the storyline many times to upper management. The storyline was eventually dropped, but unfortunately this would not end the lucrative storylines. On November 28, 2005, FCW made a decision to turn King heel. King would turn on his storyline partner Striker, beating him several times with a steel chair and chokeslamming him. Fans reacted well to this, and it appeared that the worst was now behind King with the company. Striker however would go on to completely overpower King in several matches (Striker was only 6'2), and King jobbed several times to lower card stars. King would go on a terrible losing streak, winning only two out of ten matches over the course of the next month and a half. This upset not only many fans, but also many stars backstage who felt that the feud between King and Striker had a lot of potential behind it if it was worked properly. Finally in February 2006, King announced his departure from the company for "creative reasons". His departure with FCW was obviously not a mutual understanding, but many supported his decision. King would go on to criticize the company saying that it "blew several opportunities to expand the character, and the company." WVF Even more controversey arrose when King made his debut in WVF. What King did not realize, was that King would be entering the company at the worst possible time. When King made his debut, the WVF was going through several management issues. Many backstage did not agree with one another, and there was much internal conflict between the creative team and management. Because of this, King was never really given a chance to make it big in WVF. King only had two matches, before WVF folded, and was shut down. Copyright Infringement Some more controversy arose in WVW after it was shut down when the company, which was attempting to sell off it's remaining video library to the public, continued to use the name Darkness King to advertise the videos. Because Killington owns the rights to the name Darkness King, and WVW had no legal right to use the name after he left the company, Killington filed a lawsuit against WVW for violating copyright laws. WVW's defense was that they were not using the name to gain revenue, but simply to state which superstars were involved with specific videos. The matter was eventually settled out of court for an undisclosed amount of money. Rise to the Top ELITE After some very rough times with WVW and WVF, King turned solely back to GCW. King continued to have success with the company, and was (and still to this day) is considered one of GCW's most valuable superstars on the roster. Soon thereafter however, King would get a call from the popular England based promotion, ELITE. After a short period of negotiations, ELITE and GCW worked a deal to allow King to work both promotions. Ultimately, this would prove to be very difficult for both King and GCW since ELITE was based in England, and did not travel into North America. King managed however, and to ELITE's surprise, King's popularity carried over into England. When King debuted, he received a huge ovation. Since King's arrival in ELITE had been teased for several weeks, many fans had begun bringing signs into the arena promoting King. ELITE had initially planned to have King debut as a heel, but the fans made this nearly impossible. King vs. Lbm After his debut, King immediately entered into a feud with one of ELITE's biggest legends, Lbm. Lbm claimed that King was a disgrace to ELITE and all that it stood for. King responded by taking out one of Lbm's closest allies, Andrea (who would later go on to become his storyline girlfriend). The feud continued to burn for several more weeks, and would become one of ELITE's top feuds of the time. At Supershow #14, King faced Lbm in a steel cage match. This would be the match that many feel solidified King as one of the most dominating superstars in all of wrestling today. The match lasted 36 minutes, and was one of the most brutal matches in ELITE history. The match's end saw King German suplex Lbm off the top of the cage, caving the center of the ring in. This bump was actually not scripted, but a bump that Lbm later admitted was worked out in private with King backstage. Worldwide Championship After Lbm, King then set his sights on the ELITE Worldwide championship. Blue, the holder of the title at the time, was leaving the company for personal reasons, and dropped the Worldwide title to announcer Gregory Johnson after Blue was counted out in a controversial referee decision. King claimed that it was an utter slap in the face to wrestling that an announcer was holding one of ELITE's top titles, and at ELITE All or Nothing, King won the Worldwide championship, making Johnson submit after only 3 minutes. King would go on to retain the Worldwide Championship for 5 months. All of his PPV matches were gimmick matches, including a casket match, a ladder match, and a Hell in a Cell. It appeared that nothing would stop King. Tragically however, King suffered a severe leg injury at an ELITE house show. King tore his quadriceps muscle, which would require surgery. This could not have come at a worse time for King, and he was forced to forfeit the title the following week to Cashflow. This would see the end of King's ELITE career, and it appeared his wrestling career as a whole would be put on a very long hold. Recovery and Return Recovery After surgery, King went on a very long healing and training process. Over the course of the next 7 months, King trained hard, determined to return to the ring. He slowly worked his way up, using his lower and upper body strength to his advantage. After 7 months of painful rehabilitation, King returned to a GCW ring for the first time in several months, to a standing ovation from the audience. WVWF After returning to GCW, and it made apparent that King had no plans to return to ELITE (this was most likely because the travel schedule had taken a strain on him both physically, and mentally), King received word that WVWF, the former WVW and WVF were interested in re-signing King to a deal. Initially, King turned down the offer, citing that he did not have interests in working for a company that still had relations to WVW. After a few weeks however, King began to show interest when it was made clear that almost the entire WVW staff had been cleared out, and WVWF was completely revamped. Talks began in late November 2006, and it did not take long for the internet community to get a hold of the story. Finally, on December 3, 2006, it was officially announced by several wrestling websites that King signed onto a 1 year deal with WVWF. Sure enough, on the December 12th edition of WVWF Fury, a promo aired hyping the return of Darkness King. Darkness King began showing up at WVWF house shows, and made his in-ring debut at WVWF Reborn as a part of Team WVWF. Team WVWF would go on to lose the match to Team PWX. Darkness King vs. Chris Kerrigan Upon Darkness King's return to WVWF, it was speculated that King would be entering a feud with long time opponent (and ironically, best friend outside the ring) Chris Kerrigan. Several wrestling news sites began reporting that WVWF had plans to use King in both PWX and WVWF. The rumors were confirmed true when it was made clear from several of King's promos (along with Kerrigans) that the two would once again enter in a feud. On the January 15th episode of PWX Blakout, Darkness King interferred in a Reborn re-match which pinned Chris Kerrigan and Kid Hollywood w/ Julietta Lee (representing PWX) against Dark Prophet and Jon Michaels. King chokeslammed Kerrigan through the Spanish announcers table, and then proceeded to have an altercation with PWX World Champion Matt Smith. In the following months, King was scripted to win what was to become the combined PWX/WVWF World Championship. Creative problems quickly began to stir backstage, and in late 2006, WVWF folded. Return to ELITE/FHT On September 3, 2008, Darkness King signed a 1 year agreement with ELITE/FHT (ELITE merged with FHT in early 2008). Rumors had been speculating for several weeks that King was planning a return to ELITE. It was revealed however that King and ELITE/FHT were actually in talks for several months, and that the talks were kept a secret from even the most informed stars in the company. Promos began hyping King's return to the company at Monday Night Legacy. King made his in-person debut on the September 9th edition of Legacy, accepting an open challenge issued by FHT Champion Satan earlier in the evening. Accomplishments Global Championship Wrestling :*GCW Universal Champion (4 Time) :*GCW International Champion (3 Time) :*GCW Tag Team Champion (2 Time) World Wrestling Alliance :*WWA World Champion (1 Time) :*WWA U.S. Champion (1 Time) WVW :*WVW Tag Team Champion (1 Time) ELITE :*ELITE Hardcore Champion (2 Time) :*ELITE Worldwide Champion (1 Time) :*ELITE Tag Team Champion (1 Time)